October surprise
Jonas Kaufmann‘s Herbstreise to Little Old New York dominated the busy pages of October’s parterre box, boosting our total number of pageviews to nearly 400,000.
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And now a word from our sponsors
La Cieca heaps praise yet once more upon our faithful and perceptive advertisers.
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
Faust of fury
“Trove Thursday” keeps the evil deeds going this All Saints’s Day with a vintage La Scala broadcast of Arrigo Boito’s only completed opera Mefistofele.
Three bananas
Born on this day in 1923 soprano Victoria de los Angeles.
Stay Hungary
The Hungarian State Opera and Hungarian National Ballet opened their visit to Lincoln Center Tuesday night with the US stage premiere of their “national opera” Bánk Bán.
Elopement, Neapolitan style
Niccolò Jommelli, forgotten now, was quite well known in Italy and southern Germany in his day.
She too
Like most directors of this opera this century, David Alden is keen to outline the helplessness of women in the face of 19th century patriarchy.
Happy Halloween!
Our Doyenne wishes all the cher public a joyous and spooky All Hallows’ Eve.
Broadcast: Carmen
Bizet returns to the Met tonight at 7:30, and it’s broadcast live!
Murder on the orientation express
Rufus Wainwright is determined to offer a spectacle and that intention overrides all other considerations.
Bohemienne
On this day in 1975, Régine Crespin sang her first Met Carmen.
Never mind the six feet
Yet another surprising new project for Karita Mattila: Leticia Van Allen in Myra Breckenridge.
A past recaptured
The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP to its friends) is giving Sullivan’s most operatic score a dusting off (or should one say dusting-up?) at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.
Have I got a girl for you
I was floored to find that Company with a female protagonist, at least in Marianne Elliott’s West End production, is a better and more complete show than original recipe Company.
A knight’s tale
On this day in 1961 tenor Sandor Konya made his Met debut as Lohengrin.
Broadcast: Das Rheingold
The BBC’s program of live broadcasts of Wagner’s Ring starts this afternoon with Das Rheingold at 1:30 PM.
Atonement
Sondra Radvanovsky changed my opinion of her through a single performance—I’ll never think of her the same way again; the power of her singing overwhelmed my previous impressions.
Master peace
With Liber scriptus came the biggest discovery for me, the vocal talent of Elena Stikhina.
Dishonored in the breach
Uneven operas, like Verdi’s Ernani, which just recently finished its Scala run, more often work as theatre on the micro level than the macro.
Cornet and clouds
Earlier this month I got the opportunity to sample two very different Baltic operas.
Keeper of the flame
On this day in 1959 mezzo-soprano Giulietta Simionato made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Azucena.
Broadcast: Tosca
Sondra Radvanovsky takes up candle-toting duties tonight at 7:25 in a live broadcast of Tosca from the Met. Discuss!